What an amazing photo to start the week with – and it’s a view that hasn’t changed all that much since June 1968, when the picture was taken.

What has changed is where the photographer is standing – which is the top of the tower of St Peter’s Church, in Highfields, as this tower was, until 1968, topped by an attractive broach spire, pictured below, which was in the process of demolition at the time.

I presume the Mercury photographer took the opportunity to use the scaffolding erected up the tower at the time.

As Paul Griffiths states in his history of St Peter’s Church:

“An unwelcome consequence of the post-war changes was that Highfields became poorer financially and the congregation lost the ability to raise substantial sums of money when required.”

He goes on to say: “Matters came to a head in the mid-1960s when major repairs became necessary on the spire.

“The Church faced an age-old dilemma: should the limited resources be used to maintain a witness to its faith in stone, or to employ staff to meet the immediate practical needs of its parishioners?”

An appeal beyond the parish to raise funds wasn’t successful so, in 1967, permission was given to demolish the 93-year-old spire. So this wonderful view was the result of sad news.

The focal point of the photo is the great octagonal roof of Melbourne Hall, a remarkable “Cathedral of Nonconformity”, built in 1881 by one of Leicester’s leading architectural practices, Goddard and Paget.

In-spiring: St Peter's Church, Highfields, when it had a spire.

Apparently, it was designed not to look too much like a church and called a hall “to make it less remote and more inviting to those outside”. It’s one of many city chapels described as halls: Wesley Hall, Carey Hall, Belgrave Hall, Clarendon Hall were others.

The vast church seated up to 1,500 and even today still has a large and loyal congregation.

Rather romantically, Melbourne Hall, when lit up for worship on a dark winter’s night, has been described as “a huge lantern, set down by a giant who had been striding across the country”.

To the left of the church can be seen the circular Rose window of the Robert Walker Memorial School.

In the lower foreground is the gabled roofline of St Peter’s vicarage – now sadly derelict.

And beyond that, what looks to be a large house with a double central chimney stack has now been replaced by a new building, but after that, as far as the buildings go, things are much the same today as they were nearly half a century ago. Even the filling station is still there, although not all the buildings behind it survive.

The photo is also a reminder of how much Leicester is composed of Victorian terraced streets.

Off to the right of St Peter’s Road are Avon Street, Medway Street and the St Stephen’s Road (with Melbourne Hall on the corner, when it becomes Melbourne Road). Beyond are Sutherland Street, Chandos Street, Lonsdale Street, Roslyn Street and Laurel Road.

Running parallel to St Peter’s Road, on the left of the picture is Earl Howe Street.

In the far distance, some of the vast factories of north Evington and Evington Valley Road can just be made out.

As always with photos from this period, the lack of cars and vans is noticeable, although there are a few in the area to the back of the filling station including a Vauxhall Victor, a Triumph 1300 and a Ford Anglia, while on its forecourt, against the wall, I can make out a Ford Popular and a Rover 2000.